Having infuriated millions of Robin Williams fans with insensitive remarks on the late actor’s suicide, Rush Limbaugh now blames the “liberal media” and “despicable leftists” for distorting his innocent message.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Why the rich keep getting richer (and don’t even realize it), poverty around the world, Stephen Colbert heads to CBS, and Pacifica tries to put a network back together again.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Why the rich keep getting richer (and don’t even realize it), poverty around the world, Stephen Colbert heads to CBS, and Pacifica tries to put a network back together again.

In this edition of Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Ms. magazine Executive Editor Kathy Spillar on Todd Akin and friends; Pussy Riot; Syria; keeping native languages alive; and the enduring impact of war on women.

In this edition of Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Ms. magazine Executive Editor Kathy Spillar on Todd Akin and friends; Pussy Riot; keeping native languages alive; and the enduring impact of war on women.

A 14-year-old West Virginia radio show host is in the news after he denounced homosexuality as perverted and unnatural on his program, and blasted the likes of President Obama and Lady Gaga for “making kids gay.”

“This American Life” host Ira Glass gave monologist Mike Daisey every opportunity to explain the lies in his “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” performance, which became the basis for one of the radio show’s most popular and talked about episodes. Daisey’s rationalization for lying turns out to be, like much of his show, bullshit.

Next time Rush Limbaugh wants to play the bully, he might need to play something other than Peter Gabriel’s music for a soundtrack. The musician’s reps posted a statement on Gabriel’s Facebook page noting that he was “appalled” to hear that Limbaugh had spun the tune “Sledgehammer” while besmirching Sandra Fluke’s honor last week.

Could it be that right-wing radio behemoth Rush Limbaugh understands what the Occupy Wall Street movement is really about? Even weirder, could he actually sympathize with the struggle? Maybe, considering a mini-tirade Limbaugh unleashed on his listeners, set off by the occasion of NBC hiring Chelsea Clinton as a “special correspondent.”

Lisa Simeone was fired Wednesday from “Soundprint,” an independently produced documentary show that airs on NPR stations, because she is on the steering committee for the October 2011 Movement. Simeone had been with the program for 15 years. (more)

American university students are quickly losing an important means of sharing their passions and ideas with the public: college radio. Noncommercial student-run stations are being forced to the Web or elsewhere as college administrators sell their broadcast licenses to make some quick, much-needed cash. (more)

Where is the tea party of the left? Pacifica Radio is running a weeklong investigation into America’s missing movement. Truthdig is pleased to have collaborated on a special episode, which will air on Pacifica stations Tuesday morning. Be sure to catch it and other installments of this important series. More details here.

A spokesman for the shock jock’s syndicate says a Tucson, Ariz., billboard featuring Limbaugh’s name, the phrase “straight shooter” and bullet hole imagery was designed by a local station and removed after the shooting massacre that took place in that city.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Obama committed himself in 2011 to improving the economy, creating jobs and strengthening the middle class. Here’s to a New Year’s resolution that hopefully won’t be broken.

Though Dr. Laura’s comments are definitely offensive, what’s more offensive is that she really isn’t saying anything new. Throughout our nation’s long history of racial mixing, mainstream culture has regarded interracial relationships as abnormal.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is many things, but an astute commentator on racial politics isn’t one of them. The long-running schlock jock removed her foot from her mouth this week to issue an apology for ... (continued)

The wicked (and satirical, everyone!) masterminds over at The Onion have once again cooked up an illuminating, if discomfiting, parody—this time in prose form, skewering the particularly contentious public figure of Rush Limbaugh. It’s not pretty, but then, neither are many of the statements Limbaugh has emitted over the course of his storied broadcasting career.

“To some people, banker is codeword for Jewish,” explains Rush, who wants to know whether these “money people” have any “buyer’s remorse” about President Obama. After all, he says, taxes are “anathema to Jewish people.”

Since President Barack Obama has reportedly decided to linger in Washington for a few more days to make sure Congress passes a health care bill before Christmas Day, he has a little time to play with, or so it would seem ... (continued)

Conservative radio behemoth Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves Friday to refute reports that he had called for racial segregation the previous day while commenting on a school bus brawl between black and white teenagers. Limbaugh argued that he had been joking and that liberals with “no sense of humor” had recast his sarcastic riff in a literal light.

Along with the many other potential drawbacks that may ensue from striking an ultra-conservative pose in public, it would appear that radio “personality” Michael Savage’s travel possibilities are now limited in the greater U.K. region as a result of his on-air shtick.

Is Rush Limbaugh’s sudden elevation to the top tier of the Republican Party a naturally occurring phenomenon ... or a vast left-wing conspiracy? Some among the GOP’s ranks suspect that the latter is the answer.

¿Quién es más macho? And who’s the rightful leader of the GOP? Both Rush Limbaugh and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are claiming the title in a curious kind of public arm-wrestling match that also pits entertainment against politics (as if the two weren’t already interconnected).